Resolutions
by Elleree
Summary: Hannibal Heyes is in trouble and Kid Curry needs to find him to get him out of it. After winning big in poker, Heyes went missing. Will Kid be able to catch up with Heyes' abductor in time to save his partner? R & R appreciated.


**Author's Note: **Thought I would share the ASJ New Years story that I wrote for my bestie Hanna Heyes. Hanna, hope this made it a bit brighter for you.

* * *

_Resolutions_

"If you don't tell me where he is, I'm gonna blow a hole clear through you, you understand me?" Kid Curry asked in a menacing voice that didn't have to be loud to be terrifying.

"Y-yes," the sallow faced gundog replied. "But I don't know-"

Kid clicked his six-gun. "Goodbye, then."

"No! I don't know the name! But I can guide ya there!"

"You better just describe it real well," Kid said, putting the barrel up against the man's temple. He had him tied up and on the floor of a lonely stagecoach station.

The hired gun swallowed. "Well you saw that big old tree that was hit by lightnin'?"

Kid nodded.

"Turn left there and keep ridin' for…oh, about ten minutes if you're walkin' your horse, until you see the Morris family barn fallin' down around their cows and then you'll veer right for a little ways. If you make it to the blue outhouse you've gone too far. If you've gone right, though, next thing you'll do is take the path that goes past the old pony express depot but NOT the other path which goes to the broken bridge."

"Is the pony express depot a buildin' or a barn?" Kid asked, trying to maintain his menace despite feeling like somehow he'd taken a wrong turn and was now down south getting directions.

"Mostly just a pile of wood now, but you'll know it because there's a windmill to the back of it. When you see that windmill you're gonna head left and stay straight on that path until you catch up with them."

Ice blue eyes glared down. "You said you didn't kill him. Did you hurt him?"

The captive hesitated. "Heyes _ain't_ dead, or he wasn't last I saw, but he was beat on a little."

Kid scowled. "If he's dead, I'm comin' back here and killin' you."

_If I can find the place again after following your directions. _The blonde gunslinger turned to leave.

"Wait! Ya can't just leave me here! Another stage don't come through for three days!"

"Water's in a bowl next to ya. Reckon you'll live." Curry kept walking because he was too furious to turn back without hitting the man again.

Heyes was alive and he was going to find him. And judging by the sorry state he left the accomplice in, Heyes had better not be too hurt or he would _kill_ Rex Stone.

Kid Curry rode as if a posse was behind him, but really he was cantering to the partner in front of him. _I'm coming, Heyes. Hold on. _Heyes' horse ran beside his and he was careful not to overwork either horse despite the urgency he felt.

He _never_ should have let Heyes talk him into leaving him behind to finish up a poker championship. Curry had just finished their current job for the governor, delivering a prize mare to a friend of his, when he found out his partner had gone missing. Vanished from his hotel room. Why Kid had agreed to leave Heyes despite the fact the last time Heyes had stayed behind to play poker while Kid delivered a horse, Kid had been charged with murder, was beyond his comprehension. 

_"I don't like it, Heyes," Kid had said. "Bad things happen-"_

_"'When we split up.' I know, I know. But I could win four thousand in this amateur poker championship and you'll get the thousand the governor's friend promised. That leaves us with five thousand dollars to ring in the New Year!"_

_"Thanks Heyes, I could do the math," Kid said sarcastically. "I just don't like this whole scenario or leavin' you without me to guard your back!"_

_"Just don't go to Mexico or stay overnight in any hotels and you shouldn't get arrested for murder," Heyes quipped._

_"It ain't _me_ I'm worried about."_

_"It should be! You're the one who gets in trouble!"_

_"Heyes, I'm the one thing that's been keepin' you alive for all these years," Kid said, genuine concern in his voice. "Just like you are for me. We're safer together!"_

_Heyes' eyes had softened. "I know, but I'll be fine. Careful. And the cards won't let me down. Please let me do this? It'll be like I'm using my talents to make money for us but _legally_."_

_Kid had sighed but eventually given in._

He shouldn't have. True, Kid had been paid, and Heyes had won the championship, but none of that mattered, even if they were $5,000 flush. Heyes had gone missing.

Frantic, Kid had emptied Heyes' hotel room and grabbed his horse and saddlebags with the money, and gone on the hunt. His partner was the only thing Kid cared about. Not himself, not the money, and not even the fact he wasn't in trouble for once. He just wanted Heyes safe and unhurt and in the saddle beside him. And if his partner wasn't unhurt….the man that took him would pay.

It hadn't taken too much effort to find out that gambler and rambler Rex Stone had seemed to take a special interest in his partner during the game. Asking around and buying some drinks at the bar led Curry to the gundog Rex had hired that he'd beaten for information.

Stone had hired the gunnie to help get the drop on Heyes and then stay behind to take care of Kid Curry. Well, Curry had taken care of him, he just hoped he could get to Rex and Heyes before the man decided to take his partner in dead.

_Please be okay._ Then, thinking about the directions he'd received, _Please let me find you._

_ASJ_

"I've been in more comfortable positions," Hannibal Heyes said from his position of being tied across the saddle of a pack mule. He'd been hit around and slapped by his fellow gambler, but Rex Stone had been weak enough that the riding position he was in hurt much worse than the beating. Heyes' hands were past tingling and had begun to go numb, as had his feet.

"Ham said you'd be best tied across, so that's what you are," Rex said uneasily, glancing around.

"Worried because your gun for hire didn't catch up yet?" Heyes asked pleasantly, despite the fact he could only see the ground from his position. "It's probably because Thaddeus caught up with him instead of the opposite."

Rex scowled, smoothing his hair creamed hair back into place and sweating so profusely that the jaunty ruffles on his shirts' neck were now limp. "You mean Kid Curry. I _know_ who you are, Mr. Heyes. Diamond Jim pointed you out to me once."

"I'm afraid that Diamond Jim was probably just being malicious because I happened to steal the girl he wanted at the time. He would've said anything to try and get me in trouble or delayed a few days in jail, including that I'm Hannibal Heyes."

Rex scowled. "I know a bluff when I hear one, but even if that were true, you'd have nothing to lose but a few days while they sort out your identity."

"You _do_ know a bluff when you hear one? I've played cards with you and I beg to differ," Heyes said, smirking at his horse's hooves.

Stone flushed in anger; he made a living as a gambler but Smith-Heyes-had read him easily. "Be quiet!"

"Like I said, this is a mistake, and I have a friend who is bound to be worried about me," Heyes replied. "Just let me go."

_Kid will be worried for sure, and then later, after he's saved the day, he'll be smug, _Heyes thought. He knew his partner would be coming for him, just like he knew Kid would say 'I told you so' about splitting up. Honestly, getting caught by Rex Stone and bounty hunter Eddie 'Ham' Butcher was embarrassing.

"No! I may not have won against you in cards," Stone said. "But I still have the best hand!"

Heyes groaned at the pun. "You'd better fold while you're ahead, Rex. My partner Thaddeus is bound to be in a bad mood on finding me gone. Not sure if he'll be able to control his temper when he catches up with us."

"'Thaddeus' might not even be alive! Ham specializes in ambushes and covering his tracks. He reminded me your posters say dead or alive."

Heyes felt a flash of anger and concern that he buried. "I'm the Champeen Tracker in all of Southern Utah and Thaddeus is even better than me!" _Not that I'd ever tell him that. _"He'll spot the ambush, stop your hired gun, find our tracks and then, well… If you're not a prayin' man, you'd best start."

_ASJ_

The hired gun's directions did get him to the right road eventually, and from there the tracking was easy. Kid Curry would catch up with them without an issue since it appeared they stopped every other mile or so to rest. Rex Stone was not a man accustomed to riding in the desert, it seemed.

_I'm comin', partner._

Kid had his gun ready and his jaw clenched. He tried not to worry too much-surely a wimp like Stone hadn't hurt Heyes too badly or-

He stopped that train of thought and, after walking them long enough to cool down, eased both horses back into a canter.

_ASJ_

The blood in his body felt like it had all rushed to his head thanks to hanging face first for a long period of time and Heyes tried to let himself drowse. Stone had given him water whenever he stopped which was frequently, so he couldn't complain about that, but he was terribly light headed. At least the frequent stops meant that Kid would be sure to catch up with them soon.

_Watch out for yourself, too, Kid. I know how you'll be worried about me. _Heyes could only trust that his partner had spotted the gundog's ambush and retaliated. Despite this, he kept picturing all the ways an encounter could have gone wrong until his head hurt too much to think. He was in a half swoon when he heard the gunshot.

_ASJ_

Kid was at first elated to see the equines in the distance but then he realized the mule didn't have a rider upright, it had a man tied over it.

_Oh God, No!_

Fury and raw anguish in his expression, Curry kicked his horse forward and shot Rex Stone off of his animal before riding up nearly on top of the man, leaping down and kicking the gambler's gun away, one booted foot landing on his injured shoulder.

"You killed him?!" Kid aimed his gun at the man's head.

"Nooo," Stone moaned, squirming under Kid's boot.

"Kid?" Heyes asked from the mule that had stopped with its' traveling companions.

"Heyes?! You okay?" To anyone else the gunslinger sounded furious, but Heyes heard the worry.

"Fine. Get me down?"

"One second." Kid pistol whipped the gambler with his gun and tied the man up before going to his partner. He carefully cut Heyes free, lifted him down off the horse and instantly helped rub his hands and feet.

For several minutes, Heyes didn't talk, just tried to get his limbs to come back to life before he finally grinned at his worried partner.

"You okay? How bad you hurt?" Kid asked, not ready to grin back just yet.

Heyes shook his head, which still felt dizzy, and he sipped water from the canteen his partner offered. "The man couldn't hit his way through a wet newspaper. I'm fine. Did you get the money?"

Kid gave him a look. "Forget the money, Heyes. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm FINE," Heyes said with a resigned sigh. Kid was going to be mother-henning him for days. "How'd you find me?"

"Don't ask," Kid replied.

"Well thanks," Heyes said.

Curry finished looking his partner over then finally gave a return grin. "You're welcome, but I've got one more thing to say to you."

"If you say I told you so, Kid-" Heyes began.

"Nope. I came up with our new year's resolutions."

"Really?" The dark haired man raised an eyebrow as his partner gently dabbed at his cut lip.

"Yep," Kid said, blue eyes twinkling. "I resolve never to deliver another horse anywhere."

Heyes laughed. "Sounds fair. But you said 'our' resolutions?"

Kid grinned wider. "Yeah. You, you better resolve never to stay in a poker game if I'm goin' out of town."

"WHAT?!"

[Cue theme music]


End file.
